Javier 'Javi' Rodríguez Venta (born 13 December 1975) is a Spanish retired professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who played as a

right-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

. He amassed

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known simply as Primera División in Spain, and as La Liga in English-speaking countries and officially as LaLiga Santander for sponsorship reasons, stylized as LaLiga, is the men's ...

totals of 270 matches and two goals over 11 seasons, mainly with

Villarreal Villarreal ( ca-valencia , Vila-real) is a city and municipality in the province of Castellón which is part of the Valencian Community in the east of Spain. The town is located at 42 m above sea level, 7 km to the south of the province's ...

(eight years). He also appeared in the competition with

Tenerife Tenerife (; ; formerly spelled ''Teneriffe'') is the largest and most populous island of the Canary Islands. It is home to 43% of the total population of the archipelago. With a land area of and a population of 978,100 inhabitants as of Janu ...

and Levante, and had a brief abroad spell in England with

Brentford Brentford is a suburban town in West London, England and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It lies at the confluence of the River Brent and the Thames, west of Charing Cross. Its economy has diverse company headquarters buildings whi ...

Career

Early years

Venta was born in Pola de Siero, Asturias. After playing his early career with modest Spanish clubs he was bought in 1999 by Villarreal CF, but would spend the next three seasons with the farm team (

CD Onda Club Deportivo Onda is a Spanish football team based in Onda, Castellón, in the autonomous community of Valencia. Founded in 1950 it plays in Regional Preferente – Group 1, holding home games at ''Estadio La Serratella'', with a capacity of ...

) and on loan stints. He made his

debut in the latter predicament in the 2001–02 season, playing 29 league games for CD Tenerife who ranked second-bottom.

Villarreal and Levante

In 2002–03, Venta returned to Villarreal and went on to become a steady first-choice throughout the season. In the 2004–05 campaign he appeared in 32 matches as the Valencian side achieved a club-high third place; he was subsequently named by Spain manager Luis Aragonés in his provisional 27-man squad for the

2006 FIFA World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Germany 2006, was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to host the ...

, but he did not make the final cut. In late April 2010, it was announced that both the 34-year-old Venta and Robert Pires would be leaving Villarreal. During three years he constantly fought for first-choice status with Ángel López, with both appearing in roughly the same number of games. In late August he signed for one year with

Levante UD Levante Unión Deportiva, S.A.D. (, ca-valencia, Llevant Unió Esportiva ) is a List of football clubs in Spain, Spanish football club in Valencia, in the Valencian Community, namesake autonomous community. Founded on 9 September 1909, Levante ...

, returned to the top division after a two-year absence. Venta started in 25 of his 26 appearances in his second season, totalling 2,224 minutes of action as Levante finished sixth and qualified to the UEFA Europa League for the first time in its history. He did not have an offer to renew his expiring contract, however, and returned to Villarreal for a second stint.

Brentford

On 11 July 2013, aged 37, Venta moved abroad for the first time in his career, joining

Football League One The English Football League One (often referred to as League One for short or Sky Bet League One for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League One from 2004 until 2016) is the second-highest division of the English Football Leag ...

club

on a one-year deal with an option to extend to a second season depending on appearances. He scored his only goal for the club in a 5–3 win against

AFC Wimbledon AFC Wimbledon is an English professional Association football, football club, based in London Borough of Merton, Merton, London, that plays in the EFL League Two, after being relegated from the EFL League One following the 2021–22 EFL Leagu ...

in that season's Football League Trophy on 3 September, which also marked his fourth and final overall appearance; he had his contract terminated by mutual consent on the 30th, and returned to Spain for personal reasons.

Honours

Villarreal *

UEFA Intertoto Cup The UEFA Intertoto Cup (from la, Inter, 'between' + german: toto, 'betting pool'),Most precisely, from (football pool); cf. often abbreviated and more known in the German-speaking world as UI Cup and originally called the International Foot ...

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Venta, Javi 1975 births Living people People from Siero Spanish footballers Footballers from Asturias Association football defenders La Liga players Segunda División players Segunda División B players Tercera División players Real Oviedo Vetusta players Marino de Luanco footballers Gimnástica de Torrelavega footballers Villarreal CF players Racing de Ferrol footballers CD Tenerife players Levante UD footballers English Football League players Brentford F.C. players Spanish expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in England Spanish expatriate sportspeople in England